EU and Russia to Phase out Trans-Siberian Fees

Posted 25/11/2011

An agreement was reached this week between the EU Council and Russian authorities for EU air carriers to make further use of Trans-Siberian routes, which will improve their competitiveness on routes to destinations in Asia.  The arrangement abolishes the obligation for EU carriers to enter into commercial agreements with, and pay fees to, Russian air carriers for the use of those routes as from January 1, 2014 at the latest, settling a long-standing point of contention between the EU and Russia.

Any charges to be paid to the Russian authorities will have to be cost-related and transparent and must not lead to discrimination between foreign airlines, according to the Council.  The ‘agreed principles’ contract will come into force on the first day of the month following the date on which the decision on the accession of Russia to the World Trade Organisation is taken, which is expected to be in December this year.

Once effective, newly operated overflight frequencies will “not require prior conclusion of commercial agreements and corresponding payments,” while payments resulting from existing overflight arrangements “may not exceed the amount paid in 2006,” says the Council.  In addition, six months after its introduction, bilateral arrangements between EU member states and Russia are to be modified so as to ensure that no special commercial agreement or payment is needed for code sharing by EU carriers and for their right not to stop in Russian territory on trans-Siberian routes.

---

With effect from March 19, 2012 the Breaking News coverage on Routesonline is powered by Airline Route.  For more analysis on these stories please read our expanded coverage of the key stories of the day in The HUB. 

You can also keep up to date with the latest network development news by following the live updates from @Routesonline, @TheHUBRoutes, @RouteExchange and @airlineroute on Twitter.  While all the latest news from our events can be seen by searching the #RoutesAfrica, #RoutesAmericas, #RoutesAsia, #RoutesCIS, #RoutesEurope and #WorldRoutes hashtags.

All material is copyright of UBM Aviation Routes but the views expressed are not necessarily the views of UBM Aviation Routes and the company shall therefore not be liable for the contents of any article that appears on the site.  Although the best efforts have been taken in collecting and checking the material we can not and do not warrant that the information contained in this product is complete or accurate and does not assume and hereby disclaims liability to any person for any loss of damage caused by errors or omissions.

PLEASE NOTE: From March 7, 2012 schedule data for all news stories has been extracted from OAG Schedules iNET; All GDS data is based on a live GDS update on the day of publication; Traffic data extracted from IATA BSP system for the year ending December 2011.  All information is subject to change.